But this week, the informant in the Craig Titus murder case spoke publicly for the first time and said he believes his undercover work with Las Vegas police last year deterred the murders of three witnesses prepared to testify against the national bodybuilder.

If I acted any different, today there would be three dead witnesses," Cassim said from London. "I couldn't allow three innocent people to possibly get killed."

Titus, 42, is a former competitor in the Mr. Olympia competition. He and his fitness champion wife, Kelly Ryan, 34, are charged with killing acquaintance Melissa James in December 2005 in Las Vegas.

After the couple's arrest on murder charges, an acquaintance of Titus, Nelson Brady Jr., was charged with trying to hire a hit man to kill three people in Titus' trial, which is scheduled for April.

Titus and Brady deny that they were planning to try to kill anyone, and Titus has not been charged in connection with the alleged murder-for-hire plot.

Cassim said Titus was involved in the plan. "Craig knew exactly what was what ... (he) knew exactly what was going on," Cassim said.

When told of Cassim's comments, Titus' attorney, Marc Saggese, called Cassim a "professional worm" and liar and accused Cassim of making up the murder-for-hire allegations to get himself out of a lengthy stint in prison for robbery.

"Everyone has been played the fool in this matter except for Deen Cassim," Saggese said. "The only winner in this is Cassim, who tricked authorities into letting him out of jail."

Cassim was arrested in Las Vegas in 2004 on charges of attempting to rob champion poker player Greg "the Fossilman" Raymer with another man at the Bellagio.

Cassim said that he was a regular, high-stakes gambler at the Bellagio and that he did not rob Raymer.

But Cassim was convicted of attempted robbery. He was appealing the conviction and was still housed at the detention center when he alleges Brady solicited him.

Cassim had been sentenced to three to 12 years in prison. But after his work as an informant, he was resentenced to probation, and Cassim said he now lives in London.

Cassim said Clark County prosecutor Robert Daskas, who declined to comment for this story, did not want to resentence him after his cooperation with police, but Cassim's attorney convinced Daskas that Cassim's life would be in danger in prison once word of his informant status became public.

"I would have been killed in jail or an attempt on my life would have been made," Cassim said.

Cassim said he is "on vacation" in London and could return to the United States if his testimony is needed.

But Brady's attorney, Erick Ferran, questioned how Cassim could be in London while on probation

"It is extremely interesting he would be allowed to leave the country," Ferran said. "The only way I can see that happening is if he'd been deported. If Mr. Cassim is unavailable for trial, they'll run into substantial difficulties for making their case."

Cassim, in an interview conducted by e-mail and phone, said he was housed at the Clark County Detention Center last year when Brady approached him.

"He said he was given my name by another friend because he was looking for somebody to do a job that required possible witness intimidation and more if needed," Cassim said.

He said the request from Brady prompted police to use a ruse in which Cassim negotiated the hiring of a hit man named "Fred," and police recorded more than 100 phone calls between Brady, Cassim, Titus and others.

"I had to be very convincing on the phone as I was acting the part of a middleman in a very complex case that involved killing three people and $50,000," Cassim said.

Brady did not show for three separate meetings with an undercover officer, and Brady's attorneys have said Cassim threatened Brady when he failed to show.

Cassim said he did not threaten Brady but did act tough with him at times.

"There was no entrapment here at all, just a business deal being made that supposedly involved me making $50,000," Cassim said.

I have been following this case quite closely. Pretty much everything has been said... but I think the testimonies of Mandy Polk and Megan Pierson Foley are going to be very important and burdening. These don't get enough attention in the discussions here I believe....

I still can't understand why Titus and Ryan told everything to these people... I mean... how stupid you can be? You murder someone, burn her and then immediately run to your friends and tell everything about it...!!! It doesn't make ANY sense to me... When I look at what happened I can understand that some illogical behaviour was caused by utter stupidity... or panic... but I really, really can't understand why they had to tell four people about the killing... immediately after it took place.

In the transcript of Megan Foley she describes in detail how Titus told her that he strangled and beat up Melissa. Why he (Titus) does that? Is he BRAGGING about it?

KMT, to understand it, you'd have to know Craig. For the life of him, he cannot keep his mouth shut. Do you know people who are super insecure? Well, if you do, you know that if they hear ANYTHING said about them, they have to immediately go "explain" themselves and "defend" themselves against the things said about them. Rather than staying quiet and letting something die - because all gossip and comments do - and choosing to remain silent, not justifying something with a response (as secure people do most often) insecure folks have to constantly justify, comment, battle against, stage attacks and talk, talk, talk...

Titus is just like that. He never could keep his mouth shut because he's too worried about what people think about him. Look... how sad is it that Titus is in prison for murdering a girl, and he STILL only cares about what people are saying on the outside!

WAKE UP DUDE... you're minutes away from death row!

This is exactly why he sang like a damn bird to all of those people - to ward off future comments. He's so out of touch with reality, he was more concerned with telling the details of something he should have gone to his grave keeping inside himself, just because he was so concerned that no one would THINK he did the deed - no matter what. He showed ABSOLUTELY NO REMORSE for his crime, and even reinacted his choke hold for Megan, because he wanted to IMMEDIATELY JUSTIFY his actions!

That is the mark of a true sociopath and someone who should be locked away for life.

And don't you know, he'll just go into the "lifers" population and begin new dramas every day once he's convicted. He'll constantly be involved in controversies and dramas in daily life there. He is caught hopelessly in a cycle of focusing on the wrong things ALWAYS.

Always has been. It's one reason he could never really make any substantial dent in the BB world - despite his also flawed physique. These dysfunctions progress like any addiction cycle... and he's been less and less able to keep his eye on any positive ball because he now is so bad about focusing on the wrong things, he is even incapable of remorse because his addiction for needing to have people think he's an ok guy is so powerful at this point.

Of course, the irony is, this has caused him to become a bad guy, and now his attempts/ addiction toward trying to FORCE others to see him in a good light are completely useless because he's truly not got even an ounce of being a good guy in him anymore.

Yeah... it almost looks like he didn't realize what he had done... or what could be the consequences of his actions...based on these transcripts it sounded like his attitude was like "I killed her...so what...life goes on..." I bet it didn't even cross his mind that he could get caught.

I also listened those phone conversations between him and Nelson Brady Jr... and it was apparent that Titus still thinks he's going to walk. He didn't sound desperate in any of those conversations....which would be logical behaviour if he had even a slightest touch of reality... or how this whole thing is going to end...

I'm amazed that he's still able to manipulate people so much in his current position....and why someone like Nelson Brady destroyed his own life with this insane "murder for hire" plan. I find this surprising because watched his (Titus') bodybuilding video...out of curiosity.... and he didn't feel like extremely charismatic guy...

Obviously the guy has some hardcore fans and groupies...they just don't seem to come to this forum.